Do you have a strategy for 2025?

[tenant13]

Towards the end of last year I bought a condo in Mexico and cashed out about one third of my IRAs - looking back I wish I sold 69-70%. But I’m still sitting on the stock heavy brokerage accounts and I’m not sure I want to get hit with a massive tax bill - so for now I just look at the numbers tanking.

I think that tariffs are definitely in and the recession is calculated into this strategy. I’m not judging this policy, I’m just curious if you see the same thing I do and if so - is there anything you’re planning on doing or, as it’s the mantra here: do nothing.

EDIT: I’m asking because unlike past disasters that came more or less unexpectedly, we are being told what the plan is and what is coming - months in advance. That was the reason I did certain moves in November and December.

 

[skyking1]

Yes. I'm laying low and building a house.

 

[REWahoo]

Experience - painful, long ago experience - tells me anything I do is highly likely to be worse than doing nothing. So, I'll keep doing what I've essentially done for the last 30 years - hold on tight and go along for the ride.

 

[marko]

If things go south, I'll be looking for some much needed TLH and bargains to jump into. Personally, I think think this upheaval will be over with in a month or two, so I just pour myself a Scotch every night after dinner, do nothing and watch the gyrations.

 

[imjustawarrior]

Yes. I will stay the course. I will rebalance if need be. I will probably do my first Roth conversion later this year.

I also plan on doing a lot of hiking and traveling. I'm considering actually hiring someone to do some work around the house so I can spend more time hiking and traveling. If things get really bad, I'll just stick to hiking locally. If things get really good, I'll be traveling all over. I'm flexible.

I think all the news is much to do about nothing. Time will tell.

 

[Golden Mean]

Not selling anything due to any kind of guessing at macro events. Buying individual stocks at valuations I've set, which do not involve trying to tell the future.

 

[Sojourner]

If things go south, I'll be looking for some TLH and bargains to jump into.

+1. I've been selling some put options on QQQ for a bit of extra spending money, and I fully expect those to be assigned later this month. Then I'll sell calls on those shares. If nothing else, it's a good way to do something "proactive" for now (aka, make some lemonade out of lemons).

Personally, I think think this upheaval will be over with in a month or two, so I just pour myself a Scotch every night after dinner, do nothing and watch the gyrations.

No crystal balls here, but I personally don't see all this market turbulence being "over" anytime soon. IMHO, the markets are tanking due to fear and uncertainty, kind of like how a fat, content house cat would react if a crazed dog with rabies moved in suddenly. I don't see how that dynamic changes (substantially) for the better anytime this year.

 

[38Chevy454]

Learned a long time ago, worry about the thing I can control, not things out of my control. So just going along for the ride, same as every year. I'm pretty risk averse, so market volatility and unrealized losses (or profits) don't affect my thinking.

 

[Fermion]

My only current strategy is to keep our MAGI right around 140% of FPL no matter what the market does or what our expenses do. The current market dip does affect this as I have a portion of our Roths in the stock market and thus a drop means there is not as much of that to access. To combat this, I have one Roth in TIPS and regular t-bills/bonds, even a small portion in money market.

We set up a 72t, and right or wrong, I put that account in 4.5%+ treasury bills, so barring a federal default, that income is rock solid for decades if I wanted. Gives some comfort to at least not be eating catfood.

 

[marko]

No crystal balls here, but I personally don't see all this market turbulence being "over" anytime soon. IMHO, the markets are tanking due to fear and uncertainty, kind of like how a fat, content house cat would react if a crazed dog with rabies moved in suddenly. I don't see how that dynamic changes (substantially) for the better anytime this year

Who knows for sure. But my thinking is that this diversion is self-inflicted as opposed to broad overriding market forces beyond anyone's control.

The root here is within someone's control and is well known to reverse course if things begin to swing negatively for too long. Cui bono.

 

[Alex The Great]

Waiting for some poorly performed equities in taxable account to get down, to get rid of them and rebalance.

 

[disneysteve]

I sold a bunch of stock last year knowing the economy would get destroyed this year. I managed to sell another chunk last month before the correction got going. Just hanging in now.

 

[Fermion]

I sold a bunch of stock last year knowing the economy would get destroyed this year. I managed to sell another chunk last month before the correction got going. Just hanging in now.

I sold a bunch a couple of years ago, knowing the economy had peaked with S&P at an outrageous 5000.

 

[Midpack]

Another going along for the ride, not buying or selling anything as usual. That strategy has worked extremely well for us in 1987, 2000 and 2008 like every recession or depression before. There will always be bull and bear runs, that’s normal. No reason to expect otherwise this time either. If ‘this time is different,’ we’ll all have bigger issues and market guessing timing won’t help much…

 

[RunningBum]

The only equities I own are in my taxable account and have huge gains. All purchased long ago, so there's no recent shares to sell off at lower gains. If i knew for certain that the market would keep going down I'd sell it all off and take the 15 and 20% LTCGs + 3.8% NIIT + the ACA subsidy loss, but since I can't be sure I'll just hold tight. At some point if it keeps going down I'll buy more in my Roth IRA to rebalance, unless things look unlikely to recover. Not sure how I'll decide that.

 

[kgtest]

Buy the dip. Pops sold a bill at the top. I bought a car.

 

[Zona]

We did a big chunk of our planned roth conversion for 2025 last week. Wish we'd waited until this week, but my crystal ball was in the shop.

 

[aja8888]

As long as my investment portfolios continue to provide 4 - 5% income each year, I am sitting tight and working on my golf game. I'm not going to be the one who has to spend the money in the end anyway.

 

[KCGeezer]

Changed my AA to 50/50 a few weeks ago. Thanks to this forum I’ve got the next 7 years or so in CDs and individual bonds. I guess I’ll just watch the movie and jeer at the villains.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

Be happy about the ballast in my portfolio and wonder if this is the big moment where my intl holdings finally pay off.

Otherwise, ride it out and follow my AA rebalancing rules.

 

[pacergal]

Thankful and blessed to have pensions and SS that pay our monthly bills and provide extra for some fun along the way.
Don't withdraw from retirement accounts yet, have a very small brokerage acc from my folks that we use for big vacations, lots of cap gains from it.
Right now, plan on doing nothing, AA is about 70/30 and I am comfortable with that. Prefer to see it go up, but gyrations are part of being in the market!

 

[WhenIsItTime]

I'm 78% equities and I'll move higher towards 85 or 90% if the dip goes deeper. While current decline is due uncertainty, we do know here it comes from.

 

[Al18]

Sold all the stocks I need for spending this year, in January and February. Think of doing a Roth conversion once the SP is down 20%

 

[Koolau]

I never like watching my numbers fall, but, realistically, a 50% hit wouldn't affect the way I live. A fair amount of my stash is in "guaranteed" stuff (MYGAs, GIF, Insurance cash value, etc). My PMs have typically shown negative correlation to equities. So, like REWahoo, I don't plan any significant changes to my AA, overall financial plan or life style. Having said that, I'm always flexible. YMMV

 

[Koolau]

I sold a bunch of stock last year knowing the economy would get destroyed this year. I managed to sell another chunk last month before the correction got going. Just hanging in now.

Heh, heh, thanks for telling us - now!